Any further delay, however, could throw the proposal's fate into question.

Since July 2012, BC Realty has been in talks with the owner of the Joske's building, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. of New York, to include a 23-story hotel and time-share tower in renovation plans that Ashkenazy has for the former department store.

But leases with future retail tenants limit Ashkenazy's ability to postpone the start of construction much longer, said Chris Oviatt, general manager of the adjacent Rivercenter mall, which Ashkenazy also owns.

“The structure to support just retail is significantly less expensive to build than what it would take to support a hotel,” Oviatt said.

“If we cannot come to some accommodation with the HDRC that makes sense, we probably shouldn't make that (hotel) investment,” he added. “We cannot wait much longer because we have retail tenants who expect delivery of premises at a certain time.”

Oviatt said the owner has no specific deadline, though the HDRC's conceptual approval of the tower would be a step in the right direction.

The developers, however, expressed a greater sense of urgency.

“We have pushed (Ashkenazy) back as far and as hard as we can,” Mike Beucler of BC Realty told HDRC members in a committee meeting Tuesday.

In that meeting, commissioners raised questions about the height and facade of the high-rise, and said they're worried about it “overwhelming” the neighboring Alamo Plaza.

Their hesitation prompted Beucler to seek the help of a new architecture firm, Overland Partners of San Antonio, which will redesign the proposal before a potentially final HDRC committee meeting on April 23, ahead of the May 1 meeting of the full commission.

Architect Tim Blonkvist said the team would reduce the tower's scale and find a way to match it to the look and feel of Alamo Plaza. Still, he stressed the need to meet Ashkenazy's schedule.

“We're trying to find a way to make sure we don't put the cart before the horse, and that we do the things that are appropriate first,” Blonkvist said. “But we also need to recognize that at a critical moment in time” Ashkenazy needs to begin its work.

“It's got to work with their time frame — that doesn't just go away,” he added. “I have a fear if we can't figure out how to do this, (the opportunity) will go away and it won't come back.”